Topic: The Best Indie Games of 2016

[Quemaqua]

I worked way harder than I probably should have on an article that probably isn't going to do enough to justify its own existence since it went live so late in the cycle, but ... fuck. I worked really hard on it and here it is. GAMES.

https://www.goombastomp.com/best-indie-games-of-2016/

[Cobra951]

I can see how that would have been quite a chore.  Nicely done.  I was interested in Superhot when it appeared on XBL, but the price tag and reported length held me back.  Someday when it gets cheaper, I might still give it a go.  It's a great concept.

I have a bunch of small games on the 360 because they came with a trial version.  It was a requirement for the "arcade" releases.  If the trial hooked me, I'd buy.  Some little gems would have gone unnoticed without that.  I really miss it now, and I'm buying far fewer small indie efforts as a result.

[blues]

Right or wrong, most of my indie buying happens in bulk around the various digital sales that happen during the holidays.  I put a lot of stock in the opinions of the Giant Bomb crew, so after listening to their GOTY deliberations i'm generally set with 7 to 10 titles that I want to check out.  I stay, in effect, a year behind the cutting edge of indie releases for the most part, but feel like i get a good taste of the best stuff.   This year Salt and Sanctuary, Darkest Dungeon, Enter the Gungeon, SuperHot, and Hyper Light Drifter are the ones that have really stood out to me in early playing.  I'm a little surprised Starbound hasn't gotten more love, but i think in some ways it just feels like an old game because it was in early access for so long.

In any case, nice round up of what is out there right now.   For all its other faults, 2016 dropped a cubic fuck-ton of good gaming on our doorsteps along side the other detritus and celebrity corpses.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, man, it sure did. Also welcome to the boards! Nice to have you.

I'm slightly aghast as I realized this morning, during my morning meditation of all things, that I completely forgot to put Kerbal Space Program in here. No idea what happened. In transferring my list from one place to another it must have gotten lost in the shuffle. I may have to write up some sort of addendum to this article as a result, because that game is very much one of the best indies this year, albeit for a fairly select group of people.

[blues]

Thanks for the welcome.  Blame K-man.

Kerbal has transcended game and become something of a shared digital experience.  You can easily be excused for omitting it (i did not register its lack of presence and i've got over a hundred hours in that game) since it too has been around in early access for what seems like ages.  Between GiantBomb's feature on the game and all the youtube content, it is arguable whether i've actually spent more time playing the game or watching people play the game.  My wife, best of women, commissioned a 3d printed Kerbal for me for christmas.  he is currently chilling on my desk while we consider where in my home office he will choose to colonize.

[Quemaqua]

That is incredibly awesome. And yeah, that's definitely one of those games I spent more time watching than playing. In fact, I've played very little due to just not having all that much time for games (lately most of my game time has been reserved for Overwatch and Rocket League with friends, and the rest has to go to new games for writing projects). I spent a ton of time watching Hitman stuff also, though I did put in a fair amount of time there personally in addition.